His eyes, from what I could see, seemed to be a glowing orange color. I wasn"t sure whose eyes were freakier when they lost control, his or Tobias.
My eyes stung from tears that fought their way to the surface. My heart broke for him. I know Tobias told me that he was a werewolf and that the transformation was a long and painful process but I never in my wildest dreams expected this.
Tristan"s entire body was covered in sweat and his hands were balled up into fists. I watched him smash his fists against the tiled floor, leaving them completely shattered. I felt like I was going to be sick.
"Amelia, get her upstairs. I got this."
I barely registered Tobias"s words when Amelia wrapped her arms around me and lead be out of the room. We finally made it upstairs to my bedroom and all I could do was cry. Amelia"s tears were falling too as we sat on the bed in each other"s arms.
"How do you do it? How do you watch him go through this every full moon?" I asked.
"I don"t." She confessed. "Tobias and I chain him before the moon comes up. Tobias stays with him through the whole thing but I wait up in our room. I cry every time. It doesn"t get any easier."
I wrapped my arms around her and ran my fingers through her hair to comfort her. I used to do the same thing for my little sister after our mom died. It seemed to comfort her when I never knew what to say.
"I thought there was already a full moon this month." I said, trying to think back to when the last full moon was.
"There was. This is a blue moon, when there is a second full moon in one month. Usually Tristan knows when these things are going to happen so we"re prepared, but tonight it caught us by surprise."
That was for sure. I thought the only wolf transformation I was going to see tonight was on the movie, this was the last thing I expected.
Tobias came crashing through the door which made both of us jump. I wanted to slap the h.e.l.l out of him for that.
"Tristan is gone."
His words held me in place.
"What the h.e.l.l do you mean he"s gone?" Amelia jumped up off the bed and rounded on Tobias.
"I mean he"s gone. We didn"t get the chains on in time and he took off. He"s out there somewhere and I"m going after him. I need you to keep her safe."
Tobias handed Amelia a gun. I was completely horrified. If he thought I was going to let her shoot the man she"s in love with all because he wanted me safe, he had another thing coming.
"Relax cupcake. It"s a tranquilizer gun." He said as if he knew what I was thinking.
"I thought you weren"t a mind reader."
"I don"t have to read your mind. I can see it all over your face."
He kissed me quickly then took off like a bat out of h.e.l.l. The room was eerily quiet. I could tell Amelia was stressed but she was trying her best to hide it.
I walked over to her and wiped a tear off her face. Today started out so amazing but tonight ended up sucking major b.a.l.l.s.
"He will be fine, don"t worry. Tobias will find him and bring him home."
I tried to rea.s.sure her that everything would be fine but none of it seemed to matter. I opened my mouth to ask her a question to distract her but I didn"t get the chance. There was a smashing sound coming from downstairs, like someone had broken a window.
"What the h.e.l.l was that?" I asked as I grabbed onto her arm.
Amelia grabbed the tranquilizer gun Tobias had given her and she headed for the door. I pulled her to a stop.
"What the h.e.l.l are you doing? You don"t know what it is!"
"What if it"s Tristan?"
"What if it"s not?"
"I can"t die, remember?" she said so matter of factly that I felt like an idiot.
"Oh, right." I said and released her arm.
She might not be able to die, but I sure could and I don"t particularly think dying from being mauled by a wolf sounded like much fun.
I locked the door when Amelia left. I"m not sure what good it would do considering Tristan was a werewolf with super human strength. I considered locking myself in the bathroom when I heard a crash behind me and screamed. Someone had broken my bedroom window.
As far as I could tell the room was empty but there was a weird hissing sound like someone was letting air out of a tire. I walked towards my bed to see if I could find the source but as I walked the room began to feel like it was spinning.
"What the h.e.l.l?"
I was barely able to get the words out. I was dizzy and couldn"t stay on my feet. I feel to my knees and started to crawl the rest of the way to the bed.
The way everything seemed to be moving around me reminded me of a fun house I went to when I was a kid. At the end there was a tunnel where you walk across a platform but the room spun in a circle around you. It was a total mind trip.
I heard Amelia screaming and things breaking downstairs. I wanted to rush to her side and help her. I had a feeling that it wasn"t Tristan we were dealing with.
I could feel myself slipping in and out of consciousness. My eyelids felt heavy and I couldn"t focus on anything. The room still felt like it was spinning around me.
I collapsed to the ground with my phone in my hand. I could barely make out the screen in front of me but I pressed the call b.u.t.ton. The last person I called was Tobias, so I hoped to G.o.d that the call went through.
The phone fell from my hand and I could see the shadow of boots on the floor outside my door before someone kicked it in. At first I thought it was Tobias, but when multiple people flooded into the room I realized it was just wishful thinking.
"No one is coming, sweetheart." He said.
I watched a boot come down and smash my phone in front of my face.
I didn"t recognize the voice but it made my blood run cold. I could face Tobias at his worst when he was a cold blooded murderer without even blinking, but right now I was terrified.
The man grabbed my arms and used cable ties to secure them behind my back. Tears fell freely as I came to a disturbing realization. I was going to die.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
TOBIAS.
It was a lot harder to follow Tristan"s trail than I had expected. The full moon was high in the sky but the tree tops blocked out most of the light. Being a vampire allowed me to see better in the dark than regular humans could, but not quite as well as a wolf, or a real vampire.
I had taken off in the direction I last saw Tristan go. Luckily there were broken branches on bushes and turned up dirt from his claws as he ran.
Tristan had managed to get loose once or twice before and it usually ended up in a blood bath that haunted him every day of his life. I still remember the first night he had turned after the curse. I wasn"t in the right state of mind to help him through it; I was consumed by my hunger and still p.i.s.sed at him over Amelia.
He had torn through an entire village. He thought he had lost all his humanity, but I spent years reminding him that even though he slaughtered almost every person in the village, he didn"t harm a single child. Many women lost their lives, but none who had young children to care for.
The guilt would have killed Tristan if he wasn"t immortal. Even now he still has nightmares sometimes. He won"t admit it and Amelia won"t talk about it, but I can hear him all the way from my room.
I ended up losing his trail in a small clearing. There were no more tracks to follow and Tristan seemed to have completely disappeared. I groaned in frustration. There was no way that I could go back to the house without ever hearing the end of it from the girls, so instead I headed towards town.
We were far enough away that he wouldn"t be drawn to town; but, even if there was a small possibility that he had made it there, I needed to make sure he didn"t do too much damage.
It didn"t take me long to make it into town. Everything seemed pretty quiet. The streets were empty and even Micky had the Village Pub closed down. As far as I could tell Tristan wasn"t in town so I decided to stop in to check in on Micky.
The place was locked up pretty tight but I knew where the spare key was hidden out back. I found Micky sitting at the bar table with a bottle of Jack in his hands.
"Everything alright?"
Micky took another drink from the bottle without saying anything. I started walking closer to him but stopped at the smell of blood.
"Micky??"
Again there was no answer. I came around the bar and found three men on the ground, dead.
"Jesus Christ, what the h.e.l.l happened?"
"You wouldn"t believe me if I told you."
Something told me we both knew that wasn"t true, but I didn"t want to push it. I walked over to the first guy and turned him over. His face looked like it was mauled by an animal.
"s.h.i.t!" I hissed under my breath and dropped him back to the floor.
"I"ll call the sheriff, just don"t touch anything. I"ll be back."
Micky just shrugged his shoulders and continued drinking like there weren"t three dead guys lying on the floor of his bar.
I called it in, but the station refused to operate a murder after dark. Sheriff said they would be by in the morning to collect the bodies.
The law was pretty useless in this town; if someone ever actually needed help after dark they were screwed.
I took a walk around town but as far as I could tell the only evidence of Tristan being anywhere near this place was the slaughter in Micky"s bar. I don"t know if Micky found them like that, or if Tristan spared his life, but Micky was definitely lucky to be alive.
My phone rang a few times before I actually managed to dig it out of my pocket; the I.D said "Cupcake". With any luck Tristan returned to the house and Amelia had him knocked out with a tranquilizer.
"h.e.l.lo?"
There was nothing but silence on the other end.
"Cupcake, you there?"
Again, silence. I was about to hang up and call her back when I heard a smash on the other end. My heart began to race. Maybe Tristan was there after all and Willow dropped her phone while running to hide from him.
"No one is coming, sweetheart."
I froze at the sound of a voice I hadn"t heard in a very long time; Alexander"s. The line went dead immediately afterward. I didn"t have time to keep looking for Tristan; I needed to get back to the house.
I ran as fast as I possibly could. I felt each and every cut and sc.r.a.pe from the branches of bushes as I crashed through them. I didn"t even bother detouring.
When I reached the house everything was quiet. The movie from earlier was sitting at the menu screen but the house was silent. There was broken gla.s.s everywhere and blood all over the floor like someone had been dragged through the house. It was like a scene from a horror movie.
A surge of panic hit me as I realized it could have been Willow"s. I searched the entire first floor but found nothing but gla.s.s, broken furniture, and blood. There was no sign of Willow or Amelia.
I ran up the stairs and began kicking in doors to find her. Each of the rooms were empty, but on her bedroom floor I found the smashed remains of her cellphone.
"f.u.c.k!" I screamed and punched the wall.
My hand left a decent hole which cracked all the way up the wall to the ceiling. I ran a fist through my hair in horror, and then began throwing things across the room.
The side table smashed against the far wall, and her dresser broke into pieces when I kicked it into the wall.
"f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k!"
I was screaming obscenities and losing control. The hunger inside of me was beginning to surface. I wanted to kill someone; Alexander! I clenched my teeth, seeing only red and his face in my mind.
"Looking for something?" a woman"s voice came from the doorway.
I spun around to see Calliope standing there with a smug look on her face. She was still breathtakingly beautiful but nothing compared to Willow.
"Where is she!" I demanded.
"Tsk Tsk, Tobias, where are your manners? Not even going to say hi?"
"Where the f.u.c.k is she!"
"Hmm. Well that won"t do at all. I think I"m going to have to train you to be the good little pet you once were."
I waited for her to come at me. I"d have loved nothing more than to kill her and get her back for all the pain she had caused my family. Calliope didn"t move and before I knew it someone had me from behind. Their arm was around my throat and a syringe was jabbed into my arm. I could feel my body going limp.
"What did you do to her?" I barked before I lost the ability to move my tongue and speak.
"Nothing, yet. But trust me darling, we will!"
I wanted to launch myself at her and tear her throat out. If they so much as hurt one hair on my cupcake"s head they were all going to die.
I couldn"t fight it though. The tranquilizer was taking over and my mind was slipping away from me. I tried to hold on as long as I could but it was no use. Everything went dark.
I could hear the faint sound of voices but I couldn"t make out who was talking. My wrists were hurting like a b.i.t.c.h and any movement I made coated my forearms in a sticky substance. I looked up to see metal cuffs biting into my skin. The room didn"t have a lot of light, but there was enough to make out the blood that soaked my arms.